"Try it again. Less vibrato." Jc sighs, releasing the mic button on the board in front of him. He leans back in his chair and rubs his face tiredly before looking over at me. "It's three am man and we're almost done here. Just go home."    

"Nah, I'm cool." I shrug, flipping through the magazine in my lap.    

Any second now, he's going to start up a round of twenty questions and I'm not so sure I've got the energy to answer him.    

Since the incident at the coffee shop, I haven't been sleeping much. Which is exactly why I'm still here. May as well make my insomnia useful, right?    

I'll admit, now that I've had time to think about it, I know I kissed her out of sheer arrogance. I thought I had her backed into a corner.    

I've spent all this time missing her, and I thought I was finally seeing that she felt the same. It was a twisted way to get even, I guess. I honestly thought she'd cave and admit that she wanted me back, then I could leave her high and dry the way she did me.    

But, it didn't quite work out the way I planned.    

It's been almost three weeks and all I can do is think about how good it felt to be that close to her again. How, as hard as I've been trying, I don't hate her. Not in the least. But, it's so much easier to pretend I do.    

Luckily, she has no desire to even speak to me, so it's pretty much been a piece of cake to hide everything and push it off to the side. But, it really fucking sucks.     

Jc yawns loudly and I can't help but feel bad. Dude is starting to look like total shit. Dark circles and bags under his eyes, he can't focus, the whole nine yards. I'm kind of starting to feel like it's my fault.    

I gave him a pretty short time limit for this album, so he's been busting his ass day and night. Which is why we're here, recording vocals at three in the fucking morning.    

"Jace, man... take off. I can finish this up."    

"I'm cool." He shrugs. "Besides... I'm not so sure leaving you two alone is such a great idea."    

"I am the epitome of professional." I laugh and rise from my seat. "Seriously man, get out of here and get some sleep. You look like a fucking corpse."    

"You sure?" I nod in response and he immediately hits his mic button again. "Madison... I'm heading out, but Justin's gonna finish up with you."        

She rolls her eyes and nods, shuffling through the papers on the stand in front of her.    

"Good luck." He chuckles before grabbing his things and heading for the door.     

Well... this isn't awkward or anything.     

"What do you want me to do?" Her voice seems to echo throughout the room and suddenly, I'm thinking that letting Jc leave, wasn't one of my better ideas.    

I mean... the last time I was alone with her kind of ended in disaster. Plus, I can't even remember the last time we had an actual conversation. It's been... fuck... two years?    

The last several months of our relationship was like, one long ass, continuous fight. I have no fucking idea how to talk to this woman anymore.    

"What were you and Jace doing?"    

She rolls her eyes again and marches out of the booth. "The whole band was here earlier. We laid down the track for this, but I can't seem to nail the vocals." She shrugs and shoves a sheet of paper into my hands.    

"It's the wrong key for your voice." I nod slowly, my eyes scanning over the page. "Probably because Lucas wrote it. Personally, I think you'd be better off if he took lead on it. Show some versatility."    

She's gonna blow up on me, I guaran-fucking-tee it. She's always been freakishly overprotective of her music and I'm sure this will be no different. That paired with the fact that I'm the one suggesting the change is a recipe for disaster.    

I probably should have just kept my damn mouth shut.    

"Ya know..." She sighs and plops down in the chair next to me. "I think you're right. This is so like... an angry boy song." She giggles and rolls her eyes. "So, now what?"    

"I guess we take off." I shrug. "Unless you've got something else..."    

"Nah, not really."    

The room goes silent, and that's when it hits me. There's one thing I've been dying to hear her sing. I don't even really know why. Closure, maybe? To see just how sincere the words really are? Because I'm some kind of fucked up masochist?    

She's gonna think I'm completely off my rocker if I bring this up. But... she already loathes me. Does it really matter if she thinks I'm fuckin nuts too?    

I pull the tattered, folded up sheet of paper out of my pocket and hand it to her. "You could always try this." She unfolds it delicately, and when she reads over the first few words, her eyes widen.    

"Holy shit... you kept this?"    

"Yeah." I laugh nervously and shrug. "Thought it might come in handy some day."    

"Huh. I kinda figured you woulda thrown it away or something. I know I wasn't exactly your favorite person in the world when I sent it to you."    

This is just... really fucking weird.    

But, it's a good weird. We haven't been this civil for a long ass time and it feels good. Granted, this could be a one time deal, but it's like I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in years or something.    

"Yeah you were Madison. I just... a lot of shit was happening and I couldn't find a way to balance it all out."    

I wish someone could explain to me why it's so easy to get along with her, when all I really want to do is hate her. If we didn't have all this crazy shit going on and were able to be perfectly fine, I guarantee you, we'd be at each other's throats right now.    

I don't know why, but it's like, it can't ever be simple with us. It always has to be all tense and fucking dramatic. Like, we bring out the worst in each other.    

But, it worked.    

It was fucked up and stupid and melodramatic, but it was us, and it worked.    

"Well hey, least you're happy now." She forces a smile and slaps my knee. "Lord knows Keri worked really hard for that."    

Keri. Ugh.    

I don't even want to talk about that mess.    

Her second album is pretty much finished and it's like... I'm just not interested. I don't care about promoting it or getting her on the road. Because, deep down... I know it's just another failure. The girl's talented, that much is for sure. But, the public can see through the "I'm so sweet and innocent" act she's got going and they're just not connecting with her, at all.    

So... I'm gonna have to cut her loose in every way, shape and form. And I know it needs to be soon. I just need to get up the nerve to actually do it.    

I guess I'm dragging my feet cause I know it's gonna fucking kill her and I really don't want to be responsible for that. But... it's a dirty job, and somebody's gotta do it.    

Unfortunately, that somebody is me.    

"You know that doesn't mean anything, right?" I mutter, keeping my eyes focused on the floor.    

She can't honestly think this whole Keri thing is for real. She has to know me well enough to see that I'm just not into it.    

"Never really thought about it." She shrugs. "She wanted you. You were borderline obsessed with her. It made sense. I hated it... but it made sense."    

Holy shit... that's it.     

That's why she left. She got it stuck in her head that I wanted Keri, and her stubborn ass had no intention of changing her mind.     

And my actually being with Keri, has done nothing to prove her wrong.     

Way to go, dipshit. Jesus... I really know how fuck something up, don't I?    

I know I should have realized all of this a long time ago. I was just... entirely too stubborn to listen. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought she was just jealous. Clearly, I thought wrong.    

"It wasn't like that. I was-"

"You were what, Justin? Stupid? Selfish? Arrogant? I told you exactly what she was and what she was doing, and you refused to listen. Look... I know I had a big hand in running everything into the ground, but I'm done harping on it. It's over. We've both got what we wanted, which is probably a hell of a lot more than we deserve. Trust me... we're better off to just leave it." She gives me a short nod, putting an end to the conversation. "So... you sure you wanna work on this one?"    

"Yep."    

"Alright then. I had some ideas when I wrote it, so we can play around with it a little." She shrugs, then grabs her guitar before heading into the booth.    

Just like that, we're back to square one.    

But, there's cracks in the front she's putting on, and that's all I need.    

The Madison I know, doesn't budge when she's being honest. So, she can tell me she's over it, that she's moved on. But, it's bullshit, and the conversation we just had proves it.    

Nothing's changed. We're still the same people we were when we met three years ago. Once she finally realizes that, figuring everything else out will be a piece of cake.